About 40 incidents were reported in the first half of 2018, according to prosecutors in Antofagasta, up from just six since 2014. Thefts began to rise in late 2017 as copper rose in price to its highest level in two years. While prices fell last month, thieves are oblivious to the turmoil in the metals markets.
The common target for the thieves is the Antofagasta Plc Grupo FCAB logistics unit, which owns and operates about 700 kilometers (430 miles) of railway lines used to transport cathode and semi-finished copper, known as concentrate delivered from mines to ports.
“Specialized gangs attacking moving convoys have become commonplace,” Valeria Ibarra, Antofagasta's regional public safety coordinator, said by telephone on Thursday. “They are professionals. If they see one company taking security measures, they'll just move on to the next. ”
The stolen copper cathode sheets are trafficked and sold as scrap metal at a 30 percent discount from market prices, Ibarra said.
In June, thieves stole 2.5 metric tons of metal worth more than $ 15,000 from the London Metal Exchange from a moving train. According to the local newspaper Mercurio de Calama, operators noticed the dust left by the gang's cars as they fled across the desert.
Copper trains are regularly looted in the Chilean Atacama Desert
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Azovpromstal® 14 July 2018 г. 09:35 |
